Celebrate the 25th birthday of the smashing Vauxhall Corsa

It has been Scotland's favourite supermini for years but now, amazingly, the Vauxhall Corsa is 25 years old. It has had a colourful and eventful life taking in super models, police cars and finishing up with some of the very latest technology on board.

WHAT a debut – the new Corsa supermini in the line-up with supermodels Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista.

It was a glorious baptism in 1993 for Scotland’s favourite little car and one of the UK’s most-loved superminis.

It first came off the production line in the era of Britpop, Walkmans, shell suits and the Spice Girls and, over the years, it has weathered better than most – well shell suits for sure – and is, amazingly, 25 years old today.

The Vauxhall Corsa has deservedly won a place in our hearts because, for many of us, it was the car we learned to drive in.

Naomi Campbell launches the Corsa

Lucy Finlay got hers in 2009, not long after she passed her test. She recalled: “I was determined it should look different and I insisted it was white, which was really difficult to find.

“I loved it and I went everywhere in it – it was like my second home. I was devastated when I went to university and had to sell it.”

The delightful little Corsa has played many roles over its lifetime – it has been a soft top, a police car, a muse for artist Alex Chinneck, a race car and a Guinness record holder.

We’ve loved it but so, too, have the rich and famous. Rapper Tinie Tempeh, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner and Olympic boxing gold medallist Nicola Adams have all had Corsas.

Nicola described hers as life-changing as it enabled her to get to training in the early days.

Thousands of us learned to drive in the Corsa

Former Doctor Who Matt Smith did not let his go without it doing some good. He sold it on eBay for £6300 and donated the cash to children’s charity Starlight.

And the Corsa played its part in highlighting the vandalism visited on the car owned by pensioner Peter Maddox.

Neighbours complained his yellow car was an eyesore in their 14th century picturesque village and opened the floodgates for it to be wrecked so badly it was written off.

In retaliation, dozens of yellow cars descended on the village and Vauxhall renamed the colour Maddox Yellow.

Denis Chick, director of communications at Vauxhall Motors, said: “The Corsa has played such an integral part in British culture over the past 25 years, I think it’d be difficult to find someone who hasn’t owned one or had a friend or family member who has owned a model.